1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to an X-ray imaging apparatus and an X-ray imaging system, which obtain an X-ray image of bones or soft tissues of an object using a plurality of X-rays with different energy levels.
2. Description of the Related Art
An X-ray imaging apparatus irradiates an object with X-rays and analyzes X-rays transmitted through the object to examine an internal structure of the object. X-ray transmittance may differ according to tissues constituting the object. Thus, the internal structure of the object may be imaged using an attenuation coefficient obtained by indicating the transmittance as a numeric value.
Recently, a method of forming an X-ray image by irradiating X-rays with different energy levels, but not by irradiating X-rays with the same energy level has been developed and various research thereon has been conducted.
In particular, a dual energy X-ray imaging apparatus sequentially irradiates to an object with first energy X-rays and second energy X-rays to capture a plurality of radiography images and extracts clear and separate bone and soft tissue images, that is, a bone image clearly indicating bones and a soft tissue image clearly indicating soft tissues, from the radiography images.
In this case, when the bone image and soft tissue image extracted from an entire X-ray image are displayed, it takes a long time for a user to diagnose a lesion. In addition, when the user wants to check a bone or soft tissue image corresponding to only a part that is suspected to have a lesion, the user's need is not satisfied by a generated image.
In addition, the X-ray imaging apparatus transmits the bone or soft tissue image together with a first energy X-ray image or a second energy X-ray image to a picture archiving & communication system (PACS), resulting in burden to server capacity of the PACS.